


Earth Boy

by eccentric_onion



Category: SHINee
Genre: 2min - Freeform, M/M, Mention of Doctor Who, canonverse, minho gets in touch with his inner sagittarius, whovian!taemin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 12:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2548214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eccentric_onion/pseuds/eccentric_onion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Choi Minho learns to never apply logic to Who, or love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Earth Boy

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story a few months ago for a writing club type thing I have with friends.  
> Ever since Taemin mentioned Skins I've had this headcanon where he binge-watches foreign TV shows in his free time. Doctor Who clicked especially well with this concept, maybe because I myself love it so much. 
> 
> Enjoy, I hope this gives you feels!
> 
> EDIT: Public apology to everyone who read this before I changed the layout. I did not mean to blind you, I just kept forgetting to fix it... ^^;;; Thanks for reading!

Minho never watched TV shows. In fact, he rarely watched TV in general, other than the occasional soccer game and his own dramas. Jonghyun gave him hell for this last thing, but he liked to review his performances and take mental notes. One has to constantly strive to improve oneself. It’s not like he _judged_ people who did watch shows and followed them religiously, he just didn’t understand this obsession and doubted he could ever be this dedicated. As dedicated as Taemin, for example, who watched episodes on his tablet even while brushing his teeth.

He’s taken a peek at the screen once, when he’d gone into the bathroom in a rush to grab his hair gel, and what he’d seen was weird to say the least. A spiky-haired dude was running hand-in-hand with a blonde girl, and some robots that looked a lot like salt and pepper shakes were going after them. Minho furrowed his brows a little, but forgot about it soon enough.

Fast forward two weeks and Taemin was in the kitchen, eyes glued to the tablet screen while he waited for the noodles to cook. Minho was next to him, mincing a large piece of radish for garnish, and against his better judgement, he risked a glance again. This time, there was a different dude, tall, with a hilariously animated face, and a pretty red-haired girl. They were running again, explosion after explosion destroying everything behind them.

Later that evening, Minho joined Taemin on the couch. The dorm was quiet, but for Jinki’s muted snoring coming from the bedroom. Jonghyun had already left for the radio station and Kibum was supposed to be filming with Woohyun until late at night, so they had the sitting room to themselves. The dancer was sitting with his knees to his chest, a plaid blanket covering his legs. He seemed to be reading something this time, no explosions on the screen, no running.

"Hey" he said, his arm automatically falling around Taemin’s shoulders.

"Hey. Just a minute, I’m finishing this chapter."

"Take your time."

Minho took his time too, inspecting his bandmate closely. He’s just taken a shower and his hair was still wet. Minho found himself missing the honey-blond hairstyle of past years. Black was nice too, but for some reason it accentuated how much their youngest had grown and changed, which made Minho nostalgic. Of what, he could not tell.

Finally Taemin turned off the tablet and, as he was setting it aside, a strange impulse came over Minho and…

"What’s this show you’re watching?"

Taemin turned his head to look at him so fast he could have dislocated his neck. His eyes glistened with enthusiasm, but he seemed rather hesitant to answer.

"Um… It’s a british science fiction show. Doctor Who."

"What is it about?"

Taemin looked troubled.

"It’s impossible to describe it without sounding completely crazy."

"Oh come on, try."

"Okay. It’s about a 1000-year old alien, a Time Lord, who travels through space and time in a blue phone box, which is actually his spaceship. It's bigger on the inside, huge in fact, it's got libraries and pools and stuff. He can’t die because when he’s about to, he _regenerates_ , his whole body changes, and his face, so the actor playing him changes too. And he has friends, errr, companions, humans that he takes with him in his travels. The regular ones are mostly girls. Ummm, what else…"

Minho had tried his best not to let how disturbed he was show in his face, only to fail miserably as it seemed, because Taemin trailed off and smiled awkwardly at him.

"See, I told you it sounds crazy."

"A bit, yes." Minho returned the awkward smile.

"It’s a great show, honestly! It sounds weird, I know, but as soon as you start watching it changes your life, I swear. _It takes over it.”_

No kidding, Minho thought but Taemin was getting increasingly excited so he said nothing.

"You expect it to be just silly adventures, and it is that too, but it’s about so many other things! Everyone can learn something from Doctor Who… But you’ve got to watch it to understand, I could talk all night and I wouldn't do it justice."

He paused for a second, out of breath.

"You should watch it too!"

Minho’s eyes widened. He certainly hadn't expected the discussion to reach this point.

"Me? No, I don’t think so. TV shows aren’t really my thing."

"Why not? You can start with the first season of the new series and…"

"Wait, how many are there?!"

"Seven. Uh, more, actually, it's a really old show. It was on hiatus for a while and then rebooted..."

"Whooooah, stop right there, there's no way I'm watching seven seasons!"

"Come ooooon" Taemin tugged at his sleeve like a child "live a little. Just watch an episode with me and if you don’t like it, fine."

"Alright, we’ll see."

Taemin beamed at him.

\- - -

The following days strengthened Minho's resolution not to promise anyone anything again. Taemin wouldn’t leave him alone, constantly cornering him and asking, _Do you want to watch an episode tonight? No? How about tomorrow night? Tomorrow morning? Tuesday after rehearsal?_  
Eventually, Minho gave in and let him show him some random episodes Taemin thought were cool enough to catch his attention. Minho didn’t like them. Science fiction was supposed to have rules, and this show had none. No logic, whatsoever. Taemin didn’t give up though, and by the fifth episode they watched together, a standalone story called 'Blink', he was starting to get kind of intrigued.

"Wow, ok…" Minho said when the credits rolled. "This was pretty nice."

"Really?" Taemin gave him the widest of smiles. "You liked it?"

"I liked it" Minho replied, eyes fixated on Taemin’s smiling mouth.

After this, they started watching the whole series from the start, together. They made a routine out of it, making time to sit together in front of the huge HD TV every night, even just for the forty-something minutes an episode lasted. Minho was still not impressed with the show, a couple of the earlier episodes had made him roll his eyes repeatedly, but he’d definitely started having fun, and he most definitely enjoyed the feeling of Taemin snuggled up against him on the couch. Thankfully, that time when Minho teared up during 'Forest Of The Dead', the boy had already fallen asleep on his shoulder and missed it.

\- - -

"I don’t get it, though" Minho said one day a few weeks later, while they were stretching after dance practice, all the other members already gone. "If it’s so painful for him when he loses his companions, and if he’s too lonely to travel alone… Why doesn’t he stop for a while, live among humans since he loves them so much?"

They were halfway through season 7, and Minho had stopped feigning indifference by now. Taemin had been right all along, once you got used to the complete insanity, Doctor Who took over your mind completely. The characters, their impossible feats, the wonders they witnessed, they _stuck_ and became all you could think of. Everything reminded Minho of the show, making him smile to himself stupidly in random moments, and naturally he did everything in his power to keep up the Doctor Who night tradition he and Taemin had begun, although he wasn’t sure if that was because of the series or the company. After all, he could watch it by himself when the other boy was too tired, but he refused to.

"The Doctor can’t stop!” Taemin protested, nearly falling over mid-lunge. “The show would die if he stopped, it’s against its very _essence!”_

"Its essence?" Minho asked, more out of amusement than curiosity.

"Yes! Always moving forward, always searching for new things… Change is good, sometimes necessary!"

At this point Taemin was standing in the middle of the room, gesturing passionately and raising his voice with fervor as he spoke. Minho walked over to him and grabbed his wrists, to stop his hands from flailing about.

"You’re right" he said. "Doctor Who does teach everyone something."

"Oh yeah?" Taemin said with a smile. "What did it teach you?”

"Hm… Let’s see…" Minho counted on Taemin’s fingers. "There’s no such thing as someone unimportant. The bad things in life don’t make the good things less worthwhile. Knowledge and an open mind can save lives. Never miss an opportunity to say ‘I love you’. You must stand up for what’s right, even when it seems impossible. Oh, and _nothing is impossible.”_

Taemin was glowing with joy and pride.

"Very good. If I were the Doctor, I’d totally take you with me and show you the universe."

"Now wait a minute, I think if one of us were the Doctor, that should be me. He’s a Sagittarius after all, remember?"

Taemin rolled his eyes dramatically.

"You’re nowhere _near_ the Doctor in that aspect.”

"And you are?” Minho poked him in the chest teasingly. “You’re companion material at best.”

Taemin said nothing. He was still smiling, but there was a melancholy in his eyes now and Minho hated that. Following the same kind of impulse that had cost him seven seasons and countless hours of his life, he leaned forward, touched his lips to Taemin’s ear and whispered…

"All of space and time, Earth boy. Where do you want to start?"

Next thing he knew, there were arms tightly wrapped around his waist, and a pair of lips against his own ear.

_"Here."_


End file.
